All vinyl collectors and DJ’s share the same never ending annoyance, dust and grime on records. To deal with these issues, more adventurous vinyl collectors have tried more than their fair share of DIY methods and treatments, some of them a little crazier than others. This particular treatment happens to include, of all things, wood glue. [image via imgur]
Note: Crate Kings bears no responsibility for whatever you may do to your precious record collection, turntables, or other audio equipment.
Instructions go something like this:
- Place you vinyl on a turntable, preferably a cheap one. No one wants to risk a nice Vestax or Technics turntable.
- Start the turntable and begin to apply a steady, even stream of wood glue.
- Smooth out the lines of glue as the record spins and allow the glue to dry completely, roughly 20 hours.
- Use an Post-it or similar adhesive tab to peel the dried glue from the record.
- Celebrate and brag to your DJ friends about your accomplishment.
Press your luck and grab some Titebond II wood glue or, if you have deeper pockets, go the higher end route with Record Revirginizer.
yo that record reverginizer link is wrong
Thanks for the heads up!
anyone tried either of these yet?!!!
Yes I have and it seriously works….truly amazing results.
TIP: try on an unwanted record first
We produced a video tutorial in this method. This a a fantastic way to deep clean your vinyl. Our video can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z61k5UAWev8
Quicker and better: couple of drops of lighter fuel and gently wipe with a soft cloth.
@Chris I used to use Alcohol; what I found was that products like alcohol and lighter fluid actually break down the vinyl and will damage the record at a much faster rate. But everything damages the vinyl over time. lol
Yup the Wood Glue method works great. I use Elmer’s Outdoors Carpenters wood glue and have drying time down to 4 hours. Much better than waiting 20+ hours! Really does an amazing job at grime.
For best results clean with an RCM afterwards, or the GEM Dandy.
Yo – depending on the relative humidity and air flow around the curing glue, if you wait *20* hours you’re fucked….. I did and the goddam glue had cured completely!!! I could only get it off by using 3 inch wide masking tape and lifting the shit off. Round two – I waited about 5 hours and was succesful.
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Wood glue is a lifesaver for vinyl records that you might pick up from the flea market and the like. I’ve personally glued hundreds of records (mostly 45s though). Here are some additional pointers:
1) Drying time will vary considerably according to atmospheric conditions. The more humid it is, the longer it will take the glue to dry. For me, leaving the records to dry overnight (6-8 hours) is usually sufficient.
2) Glue works well to remove “crud” that in the grooves. To make things easy, you don’t have to glue the entire record. Instead you can just glue the problem areas. Sometimes you glue the entire record, do the lift-off, and the problem area remains. You should then just reglue the problem area, and usually it comes off in the second gluing.
3) I don’t bother with the lift tabs. Instead I make sure to spread the glue ‘almost’ to the edge…but make sure that it’s in the clean, run-into area before the grooves. I then just scrape with my nail. I’ve never had a problem catching or lifting the glue up.
4) Once you lift off the glue, the record will most likely be have a lot of static electricity; which will attract dust. You should wipe down the record with a liquid record cleaner to clear off the static before storage.
i was reading a couple of forums about this and someone said they had used some sort of counter or meter to count all the clicks and pops before they did this and after they cleaned it. does such a meter exist or is it like an online app that i can use? please help
I use Genesis 950 with water to remove the dirt and grime. I have over 5,000 records and this is the only thing that cleans them good. I have tried the alcohol and it might revive gloss, but it doesn’t clean the grooves as well. The 950 has actually stopped some records from skipping – these were records I tried to previously clean with alcohol.